Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria

An international financing partnership created in January 2002 to raise and disburse money for programs against HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in low- and middle-income countries, following a call from United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in April 2001 and public support voiced by African heads of state meeting in Abuja that same year. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria held its first board meeting in January 2002 and issued its first call for funding proposals soon after, with its first grants approved in March 2002; rather than implementing programs directly, it is structured as a partnership that channels funds raised from donor governments, the private sector and civil society to country-led programs run by governments and local organizations. It has since become one of the principal international financing mechanisms for the fight against all three diseases, though as a single fund spanning all three, it sits alongside rather than inside any one disease-specific national program.